Poetics of Nothingness: Ordering Wilderness

This chapter takes the reader on a journey into the wilderness of Melrakkaslétta and follows the researcher who takes on the role of an explorer to rethink the potentiality of a place as a tourist destination. Selected encounters with features and figures whilst journeying are examined. What these have in common, although different in nature, is that they bring the flow of movement to a momentary, sometimes poetical, standstill which requires rethinking the order of things in an explorative manner. The features selected are:

The aim is to examine how one can be in touch with the surroundings by allowing for the narratives they entail to emerge when moving with them. A beach reveals how heterogeneous materialities are moved about by natural forces which reflects on the constant rejuvenation that a place undergoes. Arctic terns provide a sense for constant renewal through seasonal changes and extreme mobile abilities. Moss and lichens bring one into direct touch with multispecies habitation that grows and nurtures, whilst modern ruins of a derelict farm give an insight into more-than-human co-habitation of flows and fluxes. These features represent mobile forces that constantly shape a place; a destination.